Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 11:51 amPosts: 6561Location: United States of New England

anyone with any experience with dogs and fatty "tumors"

we found a smushy lump on our lab mix (he looks exactly like a lab but is 60 lbs instead of like 100 lbs). it's right behind one of his front legs in what i would call his "armpit" area.it's very squishy and movable and is not attached to anything. it's also pretty small.

im pretty sure it's just a fatty lipoma. i know labs are prone to being lumpy dogs. we are unsure of his age but we believe him to be in the senior range now probably 8-9.

a little research online shows that elder dogs and overweight dogs are prone to fatty lipomas, as are certain breeds like labs. he is not overweight but he is a bit older. also it's good that it is not hard and it's movable.

he has one other lump that he has had for a few years. that one is slightly different. we believe it was originally scar tissue from when he was mauled by another dog. originally it wasnt protruding but then we went hiking and being the spaz that he is he was going way too fast trying to climb up rocks and fell down some rocks and scraped his butt on a rock. after that the scar tissue now is an "outie." the first year we found it the vet did a fine needle aspirate of it and there was nothing suspicious in it. it has not changed at all since.

with the new lump im stuck between wanting to go to the vet and having them do a fine needle aspirate on it JUST TO BE SURE it's nothing and not wanting a huge vet bill and the answer to be "just keep an eye on it" which im 99% sure is what will happen.

right now we are in the "keep an eye on it" stage but im still worried about it.

i had 3 guinea pigs in a row with lump issues and it always ended badly. now granted dogs and guinea pigs are nothing alike and worst come to worst i could have this surgically removed from the dog without the insane amount of fear that comes with operating on a small animal.

All of my dogs have gotten fatty tumors as they got older. Sable had a few, including a big one on her shoulder. (I called them her "wubbly bits" or "wubbles"). I always got them aspirated and checked just because I knew I would worry so much if I didn't. I figured spending the money was better than spending every day worrying about it. If you decide to just keep an eye on it, you should measure the lump and write down the measurement and then check at least once a week to make sure the lump isn't growing. If it does grow, you should definitely get it checked, especially if it is growing quickly. If it is just a benign fatty lump, they don't remove them unless it is in a spot where it is really bothering the dog or restricting the dog's movement.

Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 11:51 amPosts: 6561Location: United States of New England

measuring it is a good idea. i will try to remember to do that when i get home today.we will probably bring him in at some point, it's just hard with him because he is my super reactive dog. he is great with the staff at the vet but if there is another dog anywhere with sight or earshot it's like WW3 breaks out.

one of my guinea pigs had the MOST GIANT fatty lipoma ever (considering her size). by the end of her life it was easily 1/4 of her body weight. i had that damn thing checked out like 1000 times, and each time it was just fat cells and blood, but it KEPT GROWING.i do think in the end it may have turned malignant but she was so ancient and had so many health problems that it is hard to tell exactly what did her in. it may have just been regular old age.

my lab cross got these all the time. i always wanted to aspirate them, too. i think i started to relax about them after two or three years of sticking needles in everything and my vet saying "IT IS MORE FAT JUST LIKE I TOLD YOU IT WOULD BE." i worked at the animal hospital, so they weren't making all kinds of money off my paranoia or anything.

_________________"rise from the ashes of douchebaggery like a fancy vegan phoenix" - amandabear"I'm pretty sure the moral of this story is: fork pants." - cq

My parents' lab/pit mix and my own pug/boxer mix, both of whom are 12, are lumpy bumpies! It's totally normal, especially among certain breeds, as many have mentioned.

I'm with strawberryberet on this one, though, as much as it pains you to part with that money, it's best to have them aspirated and put your mind at ease. My parents' dog had a lump on her leg that turned out to be cancerous and she had to have surgery. They're usually just fatty, but better to be safe than sorry!

One of my two pit bulls is really lumpy. They started popping up when he was around 6 and at 11 years old he is just a bag of lumps and bumps. A few weeks ago, I took him to the vet for an unrelated issue and pointed out his newest ones while I was there. They aspirated two lumps on his leg and one near his nose. All three lumps looked sort of similar so I expected them all to be fatty tumors. The two on the leg were. The one on his nose turned out to be cancer. Fortunately for Norton, it is at a stage where just surgical removal should take care of it. He's on prednisone for a little while to try and shrink it and he'll have surgery next month.

If it's squishy and free-moving it's probably just a fatty tumor but I'd have it checked anyway. I'd been pretty lax about having Norton's lumps looked at but I won't be after the experience we're having right now.

Our dobermans got fatty lumps but we always would get them checked out. Two years ago we thought our girl Nina had another one but it turned out to be a very malignant cancer. It definitely felt different (less fatty) and other ones popped up all over very quickly (it was lymphoma). So, I don't want to scare you but just be aware that there are other lumps that are bad and keep an eye out for new ones that pop up quickly. We were taken by surprise for sure!

I'd have it checked out. If it *would* be cancer, oral tumors can tend to grow and spread fast, so I'd want it off ASAP. I hear you though on the $. All my dogs are getting up there in years and it seems I find a new lump or 2 all the time. :/

Joined: Fri Apr 01, 2011 11:51 amPosts: 6561Location: United States of New England

it's squishy. my guess is it's a lipoma but one never knows.my issue other than the crazy cost of having it checked out is he is super duper reactive. his main issue is other dogs and is normally very well behaved at the vet but im not sure how i would get him to stay still while someone got up in his face with a needle and then poked it in him.i dont imagine it would go very well.

I would certainly recommend bringing this up to your vet, but my feeling is that it is most likely benign. My dog periodically gets warty growths on her face - sometimes on her eyelids or lips. I'm guessing it could either be a mucocele (mucus filled growth) or wart/papilloma (both are benign).

Given the appearance and location, my guess is that it would be easier to take it off than to do a fine needle aspiration. But it may not need anything done to it.